Invocation at Memorial Service Beverly Hills, California, 9/11/2010

We remember the countless innocent people whose lives were taken away nine years ago today, as well as those who have suffered and died in the many events of its equally tragic aftermath.

But today we especially commemorate, and in a very real sense celebrate, those who have given their lives so that others may live, abandoned their own safety so that others may live secure, freely laid down their lives so that others may be free.

How tragic when life is taken by violence born of fear, anger, hatred, and mistrust. How precious is the life that is freely given for the sake of another.

May we honor the lives of these men and women – these heroes – by not yielding to the illusory satisfaction of revenge or retaliation. Rather, may we face the challenges of our world today with the courage to echo, in the priorities our lives, the timeless and ever-relevant words attributed to St. Francis, who also lived in a time marked by conflict, war, and violence:

May we be instruments of true peace.
When confronted with hatred, may we bring love,
in pain, forgiveness,
in doubt, faith,
in despair, hope,
in darkness, light,
in sadness, joy.
May we seek not so much to be comforted as to encourage,
to be understood, as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For in giving, we receive,
in forgiving, we are reconciled,
and in dying, new life is born.
Amen.

Note: It may come as a surprise that the beloved and traditional "Prayer of St. Francis" appears not to have a very long tradition behind it, has often been paraphrased, and has been used in many civic occasions such as this.  So there is ample precedent for my use of it here.

You can listen to it as delivered at the "9/11 Day of Remembrance" ceremony here:


or download it at this link.

http://www.archive.org/details/BeverlyHills911Memorial-Invocation